A LOCAL education leader has warned that reforms to special needs funding could leave vulnerable children worse off.
The Government has unveiled changes to the system across England, including a £4billion of investment in mainstream schools to help children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
It also plans to re-assess children’s Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) so that they are reserved for only the most complex cases by 2035. The majority of those with SEND would move to a new school-led Individual Support Plan instead.
The announcement also includes a price cap on what independent specialist schools can charge for placements.
Dr Daryl Brown, co-principal of Maple Hayes Hall School in Lichfield, said he broadly welcomed the principle of reviewing children’s plans at transition – but warned the reforms carried serious risks:
“A review at the end of the primary phase should happen. It would show whether a child’s needs have been met and whether their plan needs to be strengthened for secondary school.
“What concerns us is how the new funding will be used. If it goes towards support, keeping children afloat in the classroom with a teaching assistant, rather than genuine intervention designed to address their learning needs, then when that review at the end of the primary phase comes the problems will simply be bigger than before.
“Support does not improve a child’s independence in learning. Intervention does.”
Dr Brown also raised concerns that restricting EHCPs to only the most complex cases could create a dangerous gap in provision for children whose needs fall between the two systems.
He added:
“Our parents already face anything up to three years going through the whole process of an EHCP and an appeal to tribunal to get the help the local authority is required to give their child.
“An EHCP is currently put in place if a school cannot meet a child’s needs from its own resources. The danger is that these changes create a loophole where a child’s needs cannot be met by the school but are not ‘complex’ enough to make the authority issue an EHCP, further delaying help for many SEN children.
“Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide an appropriate education for every child with special educational needs. If EHCPs are restricted, there must be a robust mechanism to ensure that duty is still fulfilled.
“Without that, we risk further delays for the very children this reform is meant to help.”
